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PREGNANCY

Each year,
more than 208 million pregnancies occur worldwide; 185 million occur in the
developing world alone. Worldwide, almost two in five women who become pregnant
have either an abortion or an unplanned birth.[24]

Worldwide,
an estimated 358,000 women die from pregnancy-related causes each year, with
about 355,000 of those deaths occurring in developing countries. The United
States has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among developed
countries (1,000 maternal deaths per year) and accounts for nearly 60% of all
maternal deaths in the developed world.[25]

More than
40% of pregnancies worldwide are unintended. Roughly half of these pregnancies
end in induced abortion. The proportion of unintended pregnancies ending in
abortion is higher in more developed countries (53%) than in less developed
countries (48%).[24]

About 6.7
million pregnancies occur in the United States each year.[26] Nearly
two-thirds of all pregnancies result in live births and about one-fifth in
abortion; the remainder end in miscarriage.[27]

Following
a considerable decline in the overall U.S. unintended pregnancy rate between
1981 and 1994, the rate has remained essentially flat: About 5% of U.S. women
still have an unintended pregnancy every year.[26]

Which groups
of women in the United States are most likely to experience an unintended
pregnancy?

In the
United States, unintended pregnancy rates are higher among poor and low-income
women, women aged 18–24, cohabiting women and minority women, compared
with higher-income women, white women, college graduates and married women.[26]

More than
half of pregnancies are unintended in 29 states and the District of Columbia.
Rates of unintended pregnancy are generally highest in the South and Southwest,
and in states with large urban populations.[28] And, in every state, the
proportion of unintended pregnancies that were mistimed (65-75%) is much larger
than the proportion that were unwanted (25-35%).